jack kornfield

Buddhist leaders gather in the White House on May 14 for a meeting with government officials.
Last Thursday 125 prominent Buddhist figures from a range of traditions gathered in Washington, DC, for the first meeting between White House and State Department officials and Buddhist faith groups. Teachers from the Sinhalese, Cambodian, Burmese, Bangladeshi, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Tibetan, Vietnamese, and Thai Buddhist lineages attended, as well as scholars, activists, and leaders of convert groups who do not affiliate with any one particular Asian school.
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"The Buddha was an atheist."
Writer Allan Badiner made this bald pronouncement in the midst of a conversation that spanned the wee hours of a cloudless Burning Man night. Sitting in a vast tent where, during the day, scores of partygoers had washed off their dust and grime in a plexiglass chamber, we discussed prevailing notions of a Buddhist godhead and, conversely, our mutual embrace of the religion in its secular form.
I was most intrigued, though, by Badiner’s description of the Buddha as an atheist. I asked for sources.
Allan’s first response:
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Last week, Daphne Merkin wrote an excellent personal essay, entitled “My Life in Therapy,” about her varied experiences as a patient within the therapeutic establishment (lasting over 40 years!), that appeared in The New York Times Magazine. The piece is entertaining, thoughtful, and, not surprisingly, painfully “self-aware.”
From the piece:
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A few days ago I posted an interview with Jack Kornfield and said I'd post an earlier interview with him soon. Well, here it is. The interview was given in 2000, around the time Kornfield's After the Ecstasy, The Laundry appeared. Here are two excerpts that will give you an idea of some of the modes of practice Jack was thinking about and teaching nearly a decade before the later interview.
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The Los Angeles Times reports that Jack Kornfield is in Los Angeles this weekend to give a talk on CG Jung's journals at the Armand Hammer Museum and to lead a three-hour meditation retreat at InsightLA. Kornfield, a psychologist and former Thai monk, has written extensively about Western psychology and Buddhist mindfulness practice. Trudy Goodman, LAInsight's lead teacher, tells the Times, "I feel that Jack has changed Buddhism by being a pioneer for the inclusion of our emotional lives in the practice."
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Dear Dharma Friends,
I want to ask you to consider help for the people of Burma. As you know the blessings of many of our Buddhist teachings have come from the tradition and generosity of the people of Burma. Now the devastating cyclone Nargis has plunged an already impoverished nation into chaos. The most effective was to help that I know of is The Foundation for the People of Burma (FPB), a U.S. registered charity I support. The Foundation already has 70 staff and volunteers on the ground and working to relieve suffering in sites across Burma right now, while most foreign aid workers are still waiting at the border for visas. Because FPB has worked in Burma for many years, it has been able to quickly mobilize its Burmese staff and partner networks to address emergency needs in target areas.
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